October 10, 2020
This week I wanted to call out four new books in the crime genre that are particularly good—followed by a new mouthwatering cookbook and two food narratives that I couldn’t resist. Reading mysteries and making comfort food seems a fine antidote to current events.
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
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Snow
By John Banville
Published by Hanover Square Press
Known for his mysteries published under Benjamin Black, Booker Prize-winning Banville comes out from under the pseudonym and publishes this first-rate classic mystery under his own name. The death of a parish priest in Ireland’s County Wexford (the author’s home turf) initiates an investigation in this insular community hushed by both secrets and the fallen snow.
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The Nightworkers
By Brian Selfon
Published by FSG/MCD
A former Brooklyn DA, Selfon sets his thriller in working-class Bushwick with an archetypal crime story setup: a family of money launderers, drugs, and even the art scene. Business as usual, but this debut is artful in many ways—the suspense, the characters, the sense of place. Remarkably accomplished and fun, too.
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Blacktop Wasteland
By S. A. Cosby
Published by Flatiron
Cosby is beloved by so many colleagues in the genre, like Lee Child, Walter Mosley, Dennis Lehane and Laura Lippman. A real original, Cosby deserves a wider readership. Set in the black rural South, a former wheelman and now a mechanic and family man, Bug Montage gets pulled back into the game in a fast-paced noir with terrific characters and dialogue. And, the Center is featuring this hard-driving new crime novel in the Mystery Writers of Color reading group this season.
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Dear Child
By Romy Hausmann
Published by Flatiron
Heart-stopping and addictive, Hausmann’s take on a child kidnapping is told from three points of view, and begins when a cold case gets reopened—the 13 year-old disappearance of a young woman—when a girl is found after fleeing a remote cabin in the woods. I loved this because it seems like you know where it is going (like Room) but unreliable narrators give this German bestseller a great twist.
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Modern Comfort Food
By Ina Garten
Published by Clarkson Potter
Pureed potatoes with lemon (Argentina style), Brussels sprouts pizza carbonara, chicken pot pie soup, fresh crab and pea risotto, baked cod with garlic and herb Ritz crumbs, smashed hamburgers with caramelized onions, peach almond torte—should I continue? No one says comfort better than Ina for me.
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Eat a Peach
By David Chang
Published by Clarkson Potter
It’s been over 15 years since Chang opened Momofuko Noodle Bar in New York and we glimpsed what a genius he is. Restaurateur, cookbook author, podcast host and filmmaker, he now gives us his memoir laying bare both the inside and outside of life as a hugely influential food prodigy who revolutionized Asian food in America, and took ramen to new heights. Chang’s experiences, both thrilling and punishing, make fascinating reading.
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The Man Who Ate Too Much
By John Birdsall
Published by WW Norton
Most people are familiar with the name James Beard and credit him for helping to create New American cuisine, but this trenchant biography gives an inside glimpse into Beard, the great, complex man. Birdsall captures his trajectory from early 20th century Oregon to expat life in Paris and London, and to the gritty Village gay scene in New York City. He gives us a welcome, intimate account of Beard’s long and rich life.
